The promised publication of guidelines on the use of torture has been delayed
by the Government after criticism from the watchdog which oversees the work
of the security and intelligence services.

The “Draft Guidance on Handling Detainees” is supposed to explain the new rules given to MI5, MI6 and Military Intelligence officers when interrogating prisoners in foreign custody.

Gordon Brown promised to publish the rules a year ago, soon after the release from Guantanamo Bay of Binyam Mohamed, who claimed he had been tortured with the knowledge of MI5.

The Prime Minister said the guidelines would set out the “standards that we apply during the detention and interviewing of detainees overseas” but that it would only be published “once it has been consolidated and reviewed.”

The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which oversees the work of MI5 and MI6, revealed in September that it had made “repeated requests,” for the guidance which it finally received two months later.

The publication was due to take place today but it has now been delayed after it emerged that the ISC had made significant criticisms of the guidelines.

A spokesman said the Government was committed to publishing the guidance “as soon as possible” but the ISC’s review had raised a “number of issues.”

He said: “The Committee's report on the draft guidance is comprehensive and insightful, and has raised a number of issues that need further consideration.

“The Government has therefore asked the ISC to work with them to ensure that the Government's position on these complex issues is properly understood and to help them consider how best to ensure the Government provides clarity here.”

Dr Kim Howells, chairman of the committee, said they had sent their review of the guidance to the Prime Minister on March 5 and were “assured that it would be published alongside our annual report” on Thursday.

“We are therefore disappointed that the Government has delayed publication,” he added. “We hope that Government will be in a position to publish both our review and the revised guidance itself in the very near future.”

Clive Stafford Smith, director of the legal charity Reprieve, said questions remained about the current guidelines and added: “The government has collapsed the scrum again, because they just don’t want to take part in the process. It is time for the referee to award a penalty.

“Why does it take more than a year to change a torture policy that should be perfectly simple – we never do it, we are not complicit in it, and when we learn that someone has been tortured we do as the law requires and report it.”

In its annual report, the ISC also said it was a matter of “grave concern” that their independence had been threatened.

It said the committee should no longer be hosted by the Cabinet Office, where it has been for the last 16 years, because the department now had a “a significant role in the UK intelligence community which we also oversee.”

Dr Howells said the original arrangements were for “ease of administration as the Cabinet Office was a central department used to handling classified material and with suitably cleared staff.”

Dr Howells said the committee had suggested that they should be moved to the Ministry of Justice and were disappointed the government had not reacted more positively.